Effectively introducing team members during a presentation requires more than just giving each person’s name. The people attending the meeting will want to know what these people worked on, why they are qualified to do this work and what role they will play going forward. Meet with your teammates for short interviews that help you get this information from them before you make your presentation.

Decide What to Communicate

Determine what information you want to present about your teammates during the presentation. Your goal might be to let attendees know that the information they are about to see and hear was produced by qualified professionals. In this case, you’ll introduce your teammates before the presentation starts, or introduce team members throughout the presentation before the part of the project each one worked on. Give each team member’s name, tell what he worked on and give some background information about him that is relevant to his work on the project. If your goal is to simply recognize each team member at the end as a show of gratitude, you’ll need less information.

Contact Team Members

Let team members know you will be introducing them during the presentation if you are doing so to give attendees background on the project’s staff. Ask your team members to submit a short bio, specifically telling them what information you want. Let them know you will need information about their work on the project and their qualifications and/or why they were chosen to handle this part of the project. After you receive this information, write your introductions and send them to each team member to verify you have everyone's information correct.

Make the Introductions

Introduce team members who are being recognized at the end of the presentation, beginning with a phrase such as, “We’d now like to recognize and thank the people who worked on the project…” Ask for a round of applause after the final team member is introduced. Introduce your team members by having them stand, or raise their hand if it’s a small meeting, before presenting the information you have gathered about them. Give the attendees contact information for each team member in case they want more information on a specific part of the project. Do not do this if you do not want team members talking about the project outside of their work group. In that case, instruct them to refer all calls or emails to the team leader.

Self-Introductions

If you feel it’s better to let team members give their own introductions, introduce each person by name and tell what his role on the project is. Let each team member then briefly tell what the scope of his work was, why he was chosen and what his role will be as the project is rolled out. For example, you might say, “I’d like to introduce Bob Smith, who is handling the graphics for this website project.” Bob will stand and say, “I’m a graphic designer with the company and my role on this project is to integrate the user interface over the technical aspects of the website pages to make them user friendly. I’ve got a degree in computer technology, create our company’s website design and will create all new pages once the project goes live and needs updating.”

Resources

About the Author

Sam Ashe-Edmunds has been writing and lecturing for decades. He has worked in the corporate and nonprofit arenas as a C-Suite executive, serving on several nonprofit boards. He is an internationally traveled sport science writer and lecturer. He has been published in print publications such as Entrepreneur, Tennis, SI for Kids, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and on websites such Smart-Healthy-Living.net, SmartyCents and Youthletic. Edmunds has a bachelor's degree in journalism.